From multiple sources inside Gateway Church, I have learned that one of the topics of the monthly staff chapel several days ago was the recent layoffs at Gateway. In the meeting, a leader said the layoffs were a healthy “pruning.” Although I am aware that some of the support staff have experienced reductions in compensation (some went from being paid to volunteers), the staff were told that no pay cuts were planned.
Regarding news concerning the church, the leader told the staff that they should not be participate in blogs (specifically mine). For those who followed the Mars Hill Church and Gospel for Asia stories, that should sound familiar.
I welcome Gateway supporters and former members alike to express their views. I also call on Gateway to be more transparent about compensation, and where else the money goes.
I am hearing that some laid off staff are reluctant to speak because they signed non-disclosure agreements with a non-disparagement clause. This is another sound-alike from the Mars Hill days.
Tag: Robert Morris
Gateway Church Courts Top Level Business Leaders via Exclusive Program
As the church is cutting staffs and salaries, Gateway Church leaders are offering an exclusive program for chief-level executives. Gateway Business Leaders describes itself as
The Gateway Business Leaders Program is a comprehensive program designed to help you accomplish God’s calling and destiny on your life. We have identified numerous topics that we believe will help you achieve Biblical success in your business, personal and spiritual life. We have organized the GBL Program by levels based on background and experience of the members. Our goal is to provide the best resources and relationships to each business leader in our events, training, groups, and mentoring pillars.
However, this interesting program isn’t for everyone. In fact, it is quite exclusive.
Our heart is to serve every businessperson at Gateway. However, at the present time, to best steward our resources, we have designed programs for business owners, presidents, vice presidents, CEO’s, and other C-level executives. Our program is not currently intended for non-profit leaders, first-time start-up entrepreneurs, direct sales agents, network marketers, manufacturing sales representatives, and realtors working for franchise real estate organizations. If you are an eligible candidate, we invite you to apply.
The website provides more details about who can become a member of the GBL program:
Business Owners: A business owner is defined as someone who owns a majority interest in the business they lead.
Corporate Leaders: Corporate Leaders are defined as Presidents, C-Level Executives of private and public corporations that have more than 100 employees, and Vice Presidents that oversee at least 50 employees.
Our program is not intended at this time for non-profit leaders, first-time start-up entrepreneurs, direct sales agents, network marketers, manufacturing sales representatives, and realtors working for franchise real estate organizations.
Show Me Yours but I Won’t Show You Mine
As a part of the process, applicants must disclose their salary. Why would a ministry need to know a member’s salary? This is an especially fair question since the leaders of Gateway are secretive about the salaries of senior pastors.
Given the recent news out of Gateway, I am not sure I would want to join. “Come learn how we cut staff by one-third and cut pay by as much as 20%” isn’t an attractive slogan.
Note: Gateway executives could not join Gateway’s program. Since Gateway pastors are leaders in a non-profit organization, they would not be eligible to join the group they are leading. In essence, GBL seems like an exclusive club for Christian high rollers, one which is financed by rank and file donors.
Gateway Church Cuts Pay Between 15-20%
I reported in mid-April that the fourth largest church in America — Gateway Church — planned to layoff one-third of the church staff amid extravagant spending for political purposes. Now I have learned that, Gateway informed staff yesterday that their pay would be reduced by as much as 20%.
A source had informed me that expenses were slated to be cut but did not expressly mention salaries. Now, another source tells me that the staff were informed yesterday that pay was being cut. There is no way to confirm at this point if those cuts extend to the senior pastors and founder Robert Morris.
Gateway spent lavishly on political events during and after the presidential campaign, culminating in co-sponsorship of an inaugural ball for Donald Trump. At the same time, the church started to charge for pizza during Wednesday night youth group meetings.
Since Gateway doesn’t publish audited financial statements, it isn’t clear how much senior leaders make in salary. In any case, cutting staff by one-third and cutting pay by 20% doesn’t match Morris’ optimism about growth at Gateway.
Texas Governor Tries to Mobilize Churches in Favor of LGBT Discrimination (UPDATED with Video of John Hagee)
On Friday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott contacted ten megachurch pastors about Texas HB 2899. Abbott told the pastors the bill was being held up by the Speaker of the House and asked the pastors to persuade their congregations to oppose it. Robert Morris, pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake, called HB 2899 “the bathroom bill” and urged Christian church goers to voice their opposition to their representatives. Watch Morris urge his congregation to call their legislators.
Transcript:
Also I want to let you know something that um, I’m gonna ask you to do something. Governor Abbott called me yesterday, uh, he’s calling-he called ten churches, um, that are mega-churches here in the, in Texas, the state of Texas. Uh, and there’s a House Bill right now, that we need to let our representatives know about, and bring it to the floor for a vote. It’s being held up right now by the Speaker of the House, and I’m saying that, uh, the leader of the House, um, I’m saying that– that is, in the state of Texas, okay, this isn’t Washington, this is Austin. Uh, but, it is 2899, HB2899.
You can go to our website, and find out how to contact your representative. Uh, it is being referred to as the bathroom bill, but please understand, this is to protect our children. We need to stand up, and as adults, that’s why we say no, you don’t drive a car when you’re 11, you don’t get to drive a car until you’re 16. Adults need to make laws and rules for children who don’t know how to make those decisions at that time.
And we don’t want to be disrespectful to anyone, but this is so that boys do not go into girls’ locker rooms, and girls do not go into boys locker rooms. And the governor said, “Please, ask your people to call their state representative by Monday. And so you can go on our website, and it says, find your representative, or whatever it is, locate, somethin’ like that, somethin’ like that.
There it is, find your local state representative click here. You just find out who your representative is, and call and say, we support, uh, and you can read about the bill, too, you can read the bill, but we want you to at least bring it to a vote. At least get it out of the committee. And this one representative, um, y’know, is holding it up. And so we-we really do need to protect our children. And I want to ask you to, so I’m asking every member of Gateway church to do that, all right
John Hagee also made this appeal to his congregation, but according to a friend who watched 10 other Texas megachurch sermons (deserves a medal), Abbott’s appeal didn’t make it in those sermons. Hagee was very direct. Listen:
Transcript:
I have a very urgent announcement I want every person in this building to hear. And those of you who are watching on television, especially in the state of Texas. I received a personal call from the governor of Texas Friday night, asking for the help of the people of faith in protecting our children in the Texas public schools. The governor’s asking for people of faith to call the members of the House of Representatives to pass House Bill 2899. I want you to get a piece of paper, and write this down. Pass House Bill 2899. To insure the safety and security for our children in our public school bathrooms. I want you to call Joe Strauss, if you can’t write that, take a — take your cell phone out, I know you have it, take a photo of that [pointing to screen with contact information of House State Affairs Committee Chairs]
Call Joe Strauss, call Brian Cook, Helen Giddings, the co-chairs of the committee, that are not allowing this bill to be voted on. Many Texans assume that this is going to be accomplished, because we are a conservative state–but let me tell you very candidly, we are losing this effort right now, because your elected officials have not heard from people of faith.
They have certainly heard from the opponents, they need to hear from us. And if you really want to put feet to your faith, then I encourage you to start calling, and start calling today, uh, because it will go into a computer, call tomorrow, call every day until you feel like you’ve covered the waterfront, but I want you to call those three people, and then, uh, there, you can call your-your representative, if you know that person by name. It’s VERY VERY important. Uh, how many of you understand what I’m talking about here? Very good, thank you.
Even though Morris and Hagee framed the bill as an effort to protect children, the bill actually would prevent Texas counties and cities from enacting ordinances protecting LGBT people from discrimination in jobs, housing and other public services. Worse, the bill would render existing ordinances in place in cities like Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Austin “null and void.”
The bill is linked on the Gateway Church website and leads to this one page bill.
As you can see, the word bathroom isn’t in this bill. This bill is far more encompassing than a bill about who can use what public bathroom. Currently, Texas has no statewide protections against discrimination due to sexual orientation or gender identity. According to this bill, if a class of people is not now protected by state law, then a city or county will not be able to enact protections for that class. Some cities do protect LGBT people, but these ordinances would be declared “null and void” by this bill.
While churches have always been able to opine on issues in the culture, I think this situation demonstrates one problem with churches becoming an arm of a political party. Morris and Hagee misled their congregations into thinking that a call to the legislature will keep boys out of girls’ showers. However, this bill has a much broader application. Some of the LGBT relatives of Gateway Church and Cornerstone members could lose their jobs or housing if this bill passes since the existing protections in large Texas cities will be invalidated.
Perception Versus Reality at Gateway Church
As first reported here, Gateway Church is going through a large and significant downsizing of staff, expenses and programs. This is happening after a year of lavish spending on political activities. Although there is no mass uprising yet as was seen at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, some members and remaining staff are beginning to question the stewardship of the existing leadership.
The following video was made by a Gateway Church member who would like to see less lavish spending on leadership and more on ministry. The video contrasts the words of lead pastor Robert Morris with information about Gateway’s revenues, attendance and activities. Watch (for iPhone users, a Youtube video and link are at the end of the post):
I am hearing from more and more Gateway members and staff who are increasingly concerned about the direction of the church. I think the political push of 2016 combined with no transparency on financial matters is fueling these concerns.
There is a deja vu all over again feeling about this. In my early days of writing about Mars Hill Church, I advised the leaders to become more transparent. As we know, they continued to spin and obfuscate and then lost members and money. Gateway has a much larger base and budget which insulates them against some of those losses. However, I doubt the church is too big to fail.
Also can watch here.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me2_vBhtVRs&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]